Generally, a typical electrical connector includes a housing fabricated of dielectric material such as plastic or the like. The housing mounts one or more conductive terminals usually of metal material, such as of stamped and formed sheet metal material. The primary function of the terminals is to conduct current or electricity from one connecting device to another.
One type of electrical connector is a charging connector used in such applications as portable or mobile telephone apparatus. The charging connector may be part of an overall input-output (I/O) connector assembly. Charging connectors also are used in various other applications, such as video recorders or the like. In a charging connector, charger terminals have charging pads which are exposed on the exterior of the connector housing. The I/O or charging connector often is mounted on a printed circuit board.
With circuit board mounted connectors of the character described above, fixing members often are used to secure the connector to the board. The fixing members often are called "fitting nails" and are fabricated of metal material, with enlarged planar portions for connection, as by soldering, to mounting pads on the printed circuit board.
Still further, due to the ever-increasing miniaturization of electrical connectors, robotic fabricating devices are used not only in assembly operations but in "pick-and-place" operations for positioning the connector on a printed circuit board. Visible reference points may be provided on the connector for detection by a fabricating device, such as a camera, during the pick-and-place operation, using triangular calculations to rotate the connector into its correct position. In other words, the reference points comprise triangular coordinates which are detected by the camera, and these reference points or triangular coordinates often are reflective surfaces. It is difficult or expensive to provide a good reflective surface on the plastic material of a connector housing.
Aside from the ever-increasing miniaturization of electrical connectors, in general, in such environments as mobile telephone apparatus, one of the dominant design considerations is the overall size of the apparatus, particularly the handset and its associated battery pack as well as in its charging connector. Therefore, if the connector requires separate components such as charger terminals, separate fixing members or fitting nails, and separate reflecting surfaces on the connector housing, it often is difficult if at all possible to design electrical connectors to meet all of the desired size restrictions. The present invention is directed to solving these problems by providing an electrical connector, such as a charging connector, which includes one or more terminals that perform multi-functions in a single component. In fact, one of the terminals herein performs all of the functions described above, including providing a charger pad, a fitting nail as well as a reflective surface.